Thousands of people who fled the onrushing Hurricane Milton are facing fuel shortages, debris and long traffic jams as they return to damaged Florida communities that are confronted with lengthy rebuilds.
Millions of people were urged to evacuate before Milton, which slammed into western Florida on Wednesday as a category 3 hurricane, causing more than a dozen deaths, ruined homes and flooding and triggering a rash of destructive tornadoes. More than 1.5 million people are still without power in the wake of the storm.
Many of those who did evacuate have been trying to make their way back home but face difficulties in doing so, with traffic snarled back into the Tampa Bay area.
Fuel shortages are also gripping the state, with lengthy waits for gasoline facing those seeking to head home. Florida has set up three fuel distribution sites, where residents can get 10 gallons of gasoline for free each, and is planning to set up more.
Officials have said that an unusual number of people evacuated before Milton’s landfall, heeding dire warmings about the potential impact of the storm, which at one point had strengthened into a category 5 event.
Milton hit coastal communities just two weeks after they were damaged by Hurricane Helene. Scientists have said that both storms were made stronger, and provided extra rainfall, by the climate crisis, due to an unusually hot Gulf of Mexico.
In the seaside town of Punta Gorda, Mayor Lynne Matthews said rescuers only had to save three people from floodwaters after Milton passed, compared with 121 rescues from Helene’s flooding.
“So people listened to the evacuation order,” Matthews told a news conference on Friday, noting that local authorities ensured residents heard them. “We had teams out with the megaphones going through all of our mobile home communities and other places to let people know that they needed to evacuate.”
Many of those who have made it home face a long recovery as they pick through their properties alongside clean-up crews.
“Paradise is still paradise, despite this mess,” said Pat Hurst, who along with her husband, Bill, has lived on Siesta Key, a barrier island near Tampa, since 2011 and has been visiting for more than two decades. “That said, cleaning up from one hurricane while trying to prepare for another was really stressful.”
Joe Biden is planning to visit affected communities in Florida on Sunday, where he is expected to again call for Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, to recall Congress to provide further aid for disaster recovery. Johnson has so far refused to do so.
Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, has said that he has been satisfied so far with the federal support for his state. “He basically said, you know, you guys are doing a great job. We’re here for you,” he said when asked about his conversations with Biden. “We sent a big request and we got approved for what we wanted.”